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A worker inspects an AR-15 gun at Davidson Defense in Orem, Utah on March 20, 2020. – Gun stores in … [+]
Americans continued to load up on guns at a frenetic pace leading up to Election Day, according to background check data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The FBI conducted more than 3.3 million background checks in October, one of the strongest months in a pandemic year that has already broken records. Background checks in October increased 14% from 2.89 million the prior month and were up 38% compared to 2.39 million a year ago.
Americans have been buying guns for self-protection at an accelerated rate since March, as the coronavirus pandemic tightened its grip, cratering the economy and putting tens of millions of people out of work. Covid-19 has killed more than 231,000 Americans and infected more than 9 million, with no end in sight. The infection rate is getting worse as winter is coming.
Gun sales are getting fueled by first-time buyers. Nearly 7 million people bought a firearm for the first time this year, according to the gun industry group the National Shooting Sports Foundation. As for why they’re finally venturing into gun shops, retailers say that customers cite the volatile political rhetoric, civil unrest, police brutality, Black Lives Matters and an economy flattened by Covid-19. Gun buyers are also worried about the risk of increased gun control if Democrats win the White House.
The new buyers include growing numbers of women, senior citizens and Black Americans, according to anecdotal observations from firearms dealers. The most popular guns are the compact semiautomatic pistols that are user-friendly and easy to conceal. This includes the famous Glock, as well as handguns from other leading manufacturers like the M&P 9mm Shield EZ from Smith & Wesson and the LCP line of handguns from Sturm, Ruger
FBI background checks are conducted whenever someone buys, or tries to buy, a gun or guns from a federally-licensed dealer, which includes all gun stores. Background checks are not the same as sales, but the FBI’s data is the best nationwide proxy.
Sales have been booming for major gun manufacturers. Sturm, Ruger reported that revenue rose 53% in the quarter ended Sept. 26, compared to a year ago. Smith & Wesson reported that revenue more than doubled during the quarter ended July 31, compared to the year-ago quarter.
WASHINGTON, USA – JANUARY 9: Customers shop at Blue Ridge Arsenal in Chantilly, Va., USA on January … [+]
While gunmakers are celebrating the surge in sales, advocates for gun control see troublesome signs in the stockpiling of America.
“These numbers confirm the need for aggressive action from policymakers to protect our background checks systems, which are under unprecedented strain,” said Rob Wilcox, deputy director of policy and strategy at Everytown for Gun Safety.
The fear of civil unrest isn’t just driving up gun sales. It also prompted retail giant Walmart
The election results will have an enormous impact on the future of the gun industry. President Trump is endorsed by the National Rifle Association and has no plan for gun control. But the Democratic contenders for the White House, former Vice President Joseph Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California), have an aggressive gun control policy.
If elected, they plan to expand background checks, ban the manufacture of assault weapons and high capacity magazines, and impose further restrictions on the weapons already in ownership. The Biden-Harris plan would require owners of assault rifles, including tactical-style semiautomatic rifles like AR-15s, to register them under the National Firearms Act, which already applies to full auto machine guns and silencers. The NFA registration requires a $200 tax and lengthens the background check period from minutes to months.
“It cannot be discounted that today’s gun buyers are faced with polar opposites of presidential candidates when it comes to protecting Second Amendment rights,” said Mark Oliva, director of public affairs for the NSSF.
He said that President Trump “vowed to safeguard this right” while Biden and Harris “have both embraced outright confiscation of lawfully owned firearms as the headliner of the most far-reaching gun control agenda to be presented to the American voter.”
For those gun owners who don’t register their assault weapons with the NFA, the Biden-Harris plan includes a nationwide buyback, like the one administered by the Australia government following a mass shooting in the 1990s. The buyback would pose logistical challenges, given the large number of gunowners in the U.S.
While gun manufacturers support Trump, they might experience stronger sales, at least in the short term, if Democrats are elected to the White House.
If Biden and Harris win, “the firearms industry could display an even more significant spike in demand over the next few months after the election as consumers likely stockpile certain types of firearms they fear could soon be banned,” said gun industry analyst Rommel Dionisio in an investor’s note about Sturm, Ruger.
But the pendulum can swing both ways. After Trump was elected four years ago, gun sales dropped significantly because the fear of gun control had gone away.
They well might be put to use sooner than later with the communists stealing the election.
Our problem is that they all look alike! Wish they all wore democrap hats!
They don’t all look alike. If you ever hunted in your life, you would know what signs to look for. The democrap walks slightly bent over, has longer arms that cause the knuckles of it’s hands to drag on the ground, and when speaking, rather, screaming the F word incessantly, FU, WTF, MF. They are highly recognizable with their multi colored pelts. Green, pink, blue, dayglow orange purple, and the ever popular, fire engine red. The male of the species, when going through it’s transitional stage, will usually don a brand on it’s forehead that says, used to be. This is known as, A TWATOO. The female of the species usually weighs more than the male, by 2.5 times, and responds to the name, Butch. High concentrations of these can be found in, Californicate, New Jerk, Messachusetts.
The radical democratic terrorists have cheated again but everyone knew that was going to happen. It doesn’t matter anyway because President Trump has until January 20th, but you know that if Trump wanted to do this he could. Trump could also call martial law and can be that way for the next four years since those Demon-rats cheated well I’m sure that Trump may play that hand in martial law and no one can take him out of office not even those DAMNED DEMON-RATS TERRORISTS THAT LIKE TO F**KING CHEAT. LIKE HILLARY CLINTON, OSAMA OBAMA, HEADBOARD HARRIS, HIDEAWAY BASEMENT BIDEN. YUP THEY COULD BE IN FOR A RUDE AWAKING?
BRING ON THAT CIVIL WAR Y’ALL BUNCH OF FUCKING COWARDS!!!!!
We are on the cusp of Balkanization of the US. The world is in for a horrible time as Russia, Iran, China and the radical Islamist take extreme aggression as the US crumbles and World Chaos reigns. I spoke and wrote about this back in 1992 but no one wanted to listen and redirect the passiveness of our federal and state governments against the infiltration of our education systems and the government. Do you know that the most green card in the US in in Wash DC and they work in our government offices stealing and selling our secrets and info as well as being a major force in the the Deep State sedition. It is time if President Trump retains the presidency to clean house especially the State Department, DOJ, Homeland Security, and key offices in the DC realm. He should have done it back in 2016. We would not be here if he had done this. But that is hindsight and we need to deal with what is now. I serious think civil war is not far off in the future. Probably by March and then everything will deteriorate worldwide. Succession will start in January if the Dems get control.
George Soros has the same idea for the United States, this is probably why most of the states voted for the ultra liberal Biden/Harris combo. Soros also controls most of the liberal newspapers in this country.
George Soros Hates America and ALL Americans… he has said this time and time again.. he will now make America a prison for its own people.. Americans will now suffer the consequences by having to foot the bill for every illegal immigrant, every radical you could imagine coming here..the Elite will become richer while the poor won’t even have a chance.. you will have mandatory vaccines and chip and become a George Soros and the NWO globalist slave..we as Americans were warned but took no action years ago.. no one thought it could happen here but it just did.. you reap what you sow…Americans just lost the biggest fight they have ever fought and lost..it won’t take 4 years for Americans to realize that socialism/communism doesn’t work..I’d give it a year…we’ve seen it time and time again but yet here we are..by the time Americans do realize what happened they will all be broke, homeless and hungry…just what George Soros wanted…
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